A mum had to tell her daughter that Santa Claus was late this year after a batch of toys ordered over the internet failed to turn up in time for Christmas morning.

Sarah Lewis, 32, ordered gifts – including a popular Thomas The Tank Engine musical toy – for her 18-month-old son Charlie from the Boots store website on December 8.

Boots wasted no time debiting the money from her account on December 12, but the toys failed to turn up until three days after Christmas.

This was despite the customer service centre telling her she would receive the presents “the next day” on December 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23.

Mrs Lewis, who works in the control room at the Royal Berkshire Fire & Rescue headquarters in Dee Road, said the worst part was trying to explain to her nine-year-old daughter Katie why she had been given more presents than her brother.

She said: “Every day they told me it was on the van and every day it didn’t turn up. I had to work over Christmas and the reason I did it online was to fit in with my work.

“It was supposed to save me time but last week was just a nightmare because all I did was chase up this parcel.

“Even at 18 months my son was very excited to see all the decorations and the toys and my daughter was even more excited.

“I’ve now had to explain to her why Father Christmas turned up so late. They have been brought up to think that if you are naughty you don’t get any presents so she wants to know what Charlie has done wrong.

On Friday, December 22, the Evening Post reported how delivery firm Home Delivery Network, which has a depot in Deacon Way, Tilehurst, was overwhelmed by orders and still had hundreds of undelivered gifts piled up in the warehouse.

At the time managing director Walter Blackwood vowed to pull out all the stops to get them all delivered on time, but it has emerged Mrs Lewis’s parcel was one of the thousands stranded at the depot.

However, Mrs Lewis puts the blame squarely on Boots, which was still advertising on its website that any orders placed before December 21 would be delivered in time for Christmas.

She added: “If I’d ordered it the week before Christmas I would understand if it didn’t turn up.

“They were very polite and apologetic and saying they knew how I felt but at the end of the day they didn’t do anything about it.”

Boots spokeswoman Clare Stafford apologised to Mrs Lewis and promised to look into why the package had taken so long to arrive.

She said: “We’re very sorry to hear of this customer’s experience. Although her items were due to be delivered on a number of occasions before Christmas it appears this didn’t happen.

“We will be investigating this further with our delivery company and we will be contacting this customer directly to apologise.”